Facts

A patient in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital who had been born with a spinal problem had her spinal cord totally severed leaving her a paraplegic.

Judgment

Mr Justice Reynolds found that a major issue was the relationship between the hospital and the doctors, that the hospital was not liable nor vicariously liable but that the doctors who performed the operation were negligent. He also said, "The more recent approach is to replace the law, not legal practitioners, as the means of defining negligence".